Keeping in Touch with Chess

Yes, that’s right. As some Chess^Summit authors have reached and passed this part of life, it’s now my turn – college applications. With college applications has come the unfortunate effect of not being able to play in tournaments very often, if at all. Frankly, sitting here while writing this sentence, I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head what the last tournament I played in was, or even the last time I played in a rated game in general. In other words: It’s been awhile.

Sure, I could tell you that this is a situation could very well happen to anyone, or that it’s inevitable, but that wouldn’t exactly help you. Rather, I can tell you a few things you can do to stay in touch with chess if playing consistently in tournaments or rated games, in general, becomes impractical. So, without further ado…

Online Chess

This one kind of goes without saying, but it’s really the closest one can get to playing rated chess, it’s just without the effect that rated games would have on actual rating. Playing online chess comes with the ability to practice strategies, execute plans, and stay up to date with opening theory, assuming your opponent follows the book line to the end. The opening theory part, however, might change based on the chosen time control for online chess, and that choice has some pretty significant implications. There are pros and cons for short and long time controls alike. Shorter time controls allow for refinement of intuition and quickly spotting tactics; however, they aren’t always ideal, as games can often become nonsensical in time scrambles. On the other hand, long time controls allow for deep thinking, drawn out plans, and perhaps a better chance at good opening play; these too, however, have their own cons, as the games can take a long time, and sometimes that amount of time just isn’t available. Either way, playing online if/when possible is one of the best ways to stick with the game when pressed for time.

Solving Tactics

As briefly mentioned already, another well-known way to keep up with chess is to practice with tactics on a daily (or as consistent as possible) basis, as they help with keeping motifs engrained in our minds and calculation time consistent. The benefit of practicing tactics is that they never become repetitive, as each subsequent problem is typically from a position we’ve never seen, and the motifs from problem to problem almost always change. In this way, each problem can be engaging in its own way, and, as a whole, the method is very easy to get into. In fact, my first real chess coach always praised the idea that doing “just ten tactics a day” is good enough to keep up with the game, and if time is a concern, doing only that much likely wouldn’t take all that long. There are many ways to practice tactics, and one of the best is Tactics Trainer at chess.com. The system is incredibly interactive – if you don’t find the correct answer on the first try, it allows you to retry with no effect on your tactics “rating,” or you can have it tell you the solution right away; having that choice in the first place is something that many other tactics websites don’t offer. Overall, practice tactics is a fairly straightforward and less-time-consuming way to keep in touch with chess, and if you believe in the well-known phrase, practicing something that comprises 99% of chess can’t exactly hurt.

Straight-up Think about Chess

This one might not sound all that familiar at first but bear with me, because this is actually one of my favorite ways to keep in touch with chess, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you do this already. Thinking through chess moves, games, or crazy tactics is something that I love to do, especially when in situations that some might consider “boring.” Say, you’re in a waiting room for some appointment and don’t have anything to do. If I was in that situation, I might just start playing through an opening in my head, testing myself to see how well I remember specific lines. Or, I might play through a game of mine that I happen to recall at the moment; or maybe even a game that isn’t mine, but I was fascinated with it enough to memorize the moves. Or, I could try to construct as crazy of a position as I can to make a certain tactical move to work. For example, I could ask myself, “What’s the coolest position I can come up with where a rook sacrifice leads a win by forcing doubled pawns?” and then proceed to create certain piece combinations and positions where it works. Doing this on my own has actually helped two-fold: I’ve been able to stay in touch with chess in perhaps a “creative” way, and I’ve also found a way to occupy myself when necessary.

Perhaps, the next time you find yourself not being able to play in a tournament due to timing, you can compensate by keeping in touch in one of these ways, or maybe even others that I haven’t mentioned. In fact, if any of you have other ways that you keep in touch with the game, feel free to share in the comments!

Somewhat ironically, I still won’t be able to play in tournaments anytime very soon because I’m leaving for Singapore on a field trip in a couple days, and I’ll be gone for about two weeks. Thus, you probably won’t see me in two weeks, but I should be back in a month or so. Until then!